Chase scene

Our actor, Diego, got a good workout on Saturday. He did a lot of running for a chase scene which involved lots of different locations and angles. In one shot, we found a quiet road where all traffic lanes would clear from time to time, where I could stand on the center divide with my camera while Diego waited for a safe moment to run across several traffic lanes. He was running toward a block of housing, but in the editing process I will digitally turn that scene into a gas station.

Nevada-Mexico Border

Diego, Alex, and I (Basil) caravanned four hours to arrive in the middle of nowhere (Lyon County, Nevada), but it was worth it. We scouted the region south of the middle of nowhere and located the perfect place to film our “border-crossing” scenes. I built false border markers replicating the real signs used in the Sonora Desert, along the U.S.-Mexico border. The temperature that morning was a mere 18 degrees FAHRENHEIT, but by the time we started filming, the weather was more reasonable (around 62 degrees). Based on the dailies (raw footage), our trip to Nevada appears to have been a success.

Planning an Interstate Excursion: Nevada

We have scouted (via internet) for sites that could resemble the desert border crossing to California. In order to film these false border scenes, we will travel three hours to Nevada, where desert is plentiful. Our lead actor, Diego, can drive and is willing to drive there too, so we're going this weekend before it gets any colder. The temperature was 24 degrees this morning, but by afternoon it gets above 60 degrees. Diego is supposed to be crossing the hot Sonoran Desert in in a t-shirt--hope nobody catches pneumonia. We'll shoot extra footage, including extra scenery in case we need to do some compositing work in post production editing.

Night Shots

The day was short, but we worked with it, using the fading light, and then the darkness and traffic lights. We made the most of what little light there was to work with.

Back to Work

Our film is back on schedule! We had two weeks of uncertainty over the availability of our main actor, Jorge. Jorge is a seventeen year-old resident of California who originally came from Mexico with his family in search of a better life. His story was the inspiration for our film, "Road to Opportunity". Although he is no longer the main actor, we will continue to stay in touch as he has been a vital asset to our project.

Yesterday, November 12th, 2005, our crew met with Diego (our new main actor) to film various construction scenes in rapidly developing Solano County. The goal may seem over ambitious: Make "Norcal" (northern California) appear to be "Socal" (Southern California). However, with fastidious location scouting, the director sees this goal to be feasible.

Location Scouting

On 9 November, 2005, Alex and Boss scouted out various locations throughout the region (Solano County). We were transported by Kathy and her son, Vinnie, who have provided valuable connections for our Production. Their acquaintance with the region also serves our ambition to find the best possible filming locations without driving to the actual Los Angeles, CA (the implied location of our film).

Main actor lost!

It's about as big a change as we could foresee:
we lost our main actor, who has too many other obligations. But he will stay on as a consultant.

A big twist in the Rubik's Cube! A twist in the plot of our filmmaking story!!

Audio clips

Here's a sample audio clip of me knocking. Later we might also post some voice-clips from a scene. I would like to post some original music being composed for our film. Stay tuned. . .

Current Project: "ROAD TO OPPORTUNITY"

AB and team are currently working on a feature independent film project. Our movie, “Road to Opportunity”, is a comedy-drama about a Mexican illegal immigrant who crosses the border into California with high hopes and naive expectations. The film is currently in the cinematogaphy stage. Completion of the project is set for January, 2006.

Trip to AFB

Our film team took a trip to Travis Air Force Base in October, 2005, during a special “Air Fair”, in which we received full access to the military aircraft on display. Our main actor at that time, Jorge, walked alongside the largest Aircraft in North America, the C-5 Galaxy. Garret (in black) and Kyle (in beige) provided technical support in that event. This scene was not in the existing script, but the director, Alex, saw it as a special opportunity. As a result of switching actors, we may not be able to utilize the scene after all.

Meanwhile. . .

Meanwhile. . .
I'm a student. . .
and homework happens.
By Sunday night--like now--it better happen.
And so that is where I'm going--right now.
trig.
an essay.
the school broadcast prep.
now.

Snap Shots - Action

Scene one, take two. . .action!
Cut. Check that again. . . what about. . .
Yes.

Snap shots.

Trying to capture behind-the-scenes action.

Lots of that is spent sitting, standing, watching, listening, waiting. . . problem solving. It's not what you first think of as "action".

Lining Up Cast and Crew

It has been fun to work with a larger crew this time--we have about a dozen crew members and a cast of students and adults--but it takes a lot of phone calls--and several phones--to line up even a few to be at the same place at the same time.

So much for planning. . .

Planning. That's probably good for lots of things. Even filmmaking. Even when nothing goes as planned.
It's like having a script--you're glad you have it, even if you have to keep changing it.

Rubik's Cube

Have you ever played with a Rubik's Cube? You have to twist the segments to line up all like colors on each side. Just when you think you've got everything lined up, you turn it around and see it's not! That's what happens to film-shoot plans. You've got all your film crew lined up and then the main actor can't make it. Or the actors are lined up but a location plan falls through. Or it rains. Or. . .
So you have to like playing the game--the cube--for the times things line up and even for the times when they don't.

AB

A (as in Alex) and
B (as in Basil)
We will both be posting to our weblog.

Media School

It's good to be part of a media school that has film production classes. It gives us other crew members who have an idea what they're doing.
Our instructor is Mr. Leonard Carillo. He's been making films for years.

Looking back

My brother and I started brainstorming our screenplay last summmer. We planned to shoot it as an independent project, but brought it into our film production class to work on as a group project there.
I feel like I'm halfway between the end of this film and the beginning. While I'm looking ahead, I'm also looking back. It's time to review what we've done til now.